Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The final push for this season's championship of the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League begins with quarterfinal action Tuesday night at Kelly Bolish Gymnasium, home of the AAU Renegades, in Hatboro, Pa.

Though players have brought their competitive spirit throughout the past two months, as longtime commissioner David Kessler points out, the league is supposed to be about more than wins and losses.

"One, you hope everyone has an enjoyable time," Kessler said. "Secondly, you hope players are able to work on and improve upon different portions of their game that they can take back or, in the case of incoming freshmen, introduce to their respective colleges and universities when they enroll in the fall.

"I'm always pleased when I look at recaps of games in the winter and see the young women who played in the league doing well and hope that the league had something to do with it," said Kessler, who, by the way, can always be contacted by email at deucedbk@comcast.net.

That's certainly been the situation approached by Taylor Bryant, a former star and recent graduate of Upper Dublin High, who is headed for Delaware for her education but is not one of the scholarship players on the nationally-ranked Blue Hens, highlighted by all-American Elena Delle Donne.

Bryant was on the Columbia Blue squad, one of four teams eliminated to get to the field of eight for the quarterfinals that will play in two sets of doubleheaders Tuesday night on Courts 1 and 2.

But despite having her summer season end early, Bryant was thrilled to be able to compete against some of the best players at such area Division I schools as Saint Joseph's, Villanova, Lehigh and Lafayette, besides talented individuals on Division II and Division III teams, especially the local D-2 squads who are allowed to play as entire units under NCAA rules.

"The competition was very good," Bryant said last Thursday after her team wrapped up the regular season and actually ruined the playoff chances of Kelly Green (D-2 University of the Sciences in Philadelphia).

"I could tell the first day I walked in it was going to be a good experience," Bryant said. "It's definitely different than playing in high school since these people are more experienced, either playing in college or having played at the college level."

Bryant was fully aware that Delaware has a full roster for this coming season as the Blue Hens attempt to repeat as Colonial Athletic Association champions and make a deeper run in the NCAA tournament, of which they will be a host school for the first two rounds.

But academic pursuits drove her decision and there might still a place for her in the program in some capacity, Bryant explained.

"I talked to (assistant) coach (Tom) Lochner and he told me when school starts, he's going to let me play some pick-up with the girls and then decide whether I deserve to have a tryout or not as a walk-on.

"And even if I succeed, because they have a full roster, I might not get the oppportunity but he said might be able to use me as a practice player or as a manager," Bryant added.

History has shown that one can improve to realize their ambitions in those capacities.

For example, Rutgers senior-to-be Brittany Lapidus was a manager as a freshman who had also gone for years to Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer's summer camps.

Two seasons ago needing to fill a roster slot, Stringer decided that Lapidus, from Marlboro High in New Jersey, was worth being chosen in part as a reward for her loyalty to the program.

As for the motivation in the academics world for chosing Delaware, Bryant explained, "Definitely, the veterinary program. I always wanted to be a vet.

"Not many schools in the country have Vet programs. It was between Delaware and Cornell, which were actually the top two that had the program that I wanted to go to, although Penn was my top choice but they didn't have the program.

"So I could try to walk on elsewhere or Delaware that had the program, so I decided Delaware was the one. And it's near home. And anything involving being around them will be a plus."

Bridget Higgins, a graduate of the Mount St. Joseph's powerhouse, also benefitted from the league in getting prepared for her destination at the University of Pittsburgh, where she'll also try gain a slot as a walk-on.

This is the last season the Panthers will compete in the Big East before moving on to the Atlantic Coast Conference, as will Big East rival Syracuse.

Post-season awards aren't given out in the summer league and the only stats kept are points, of which the top scorers of each game are forwarded to the Guru from the commissioner for the roundup, but if an all-rookie team had to be named, at least from the rosters indicating incoming freshmen at various universities, there were several worthy of such citation this season.

Again, this is only based on the scoring results. It's quite possible others did well as rebounders or assists and there will be an exploration if a way can be found to keep those statistics next season.

Bryant certainly was one of the top players beyond rookie status on Columbia Blue but in terms of rookies another standout both ways on the squad was Alex Wheatley, a Council Rock South graduate headed for Princeton, the three-time defending Ivy champion which has all-American prospect Niveen Rasheed for one more season.

Though Saint Joseph's lost a slew of experience and talent through graduation such as Katie Kuester, who could be considered an MVP summer league candidate playing with defending champion and unbeaten Lime Green (11-0), the top seed in the playoffs, the Hawks might still thrive based on the play of their incoming freshmen.

Three would certainly be all-rookie summer league candidates in Cheltenham graduate Ciara Andrews, who turned in several of the top individual performances playing on third-seed Hunter Green.

The squad, which has Hawks veterans Erin Shields and Shelby Smith, also has Saint Joseph's newcomer Sarah Fairbanks of Elizabethtown, Pa., near Harrisburg.

The Hawks, incidentally, are heading for a trip to Ireland, which will occur two weeks from now after the best-of-three championship round concludes next week.

The commissioner took great pains in the summer schedule cramming a few things here and there to make sure everything was completed before the Hawks go overseas.

Incidentally, in a record low, there were only two games forfeited because of a shortfall of players and both occurred late in the season.

On was Gold on the final night to Vegas Gold (West Chester), which already had a slot wrapped up and Gold was already eliminated.

The other was a loss by Cardinal Red, which became moot because the squad would still be in the same game Tuesday night but would be the fourth seed and Royal Blue, the Division II Holy Family squad, would be the fifth seed instead of the other way around.

Another Saint Joseph's newcomer who was a standout was Jordan Strode of North Carolina, who played on Team Gold.

The commissioner is checking and will give the Guru the names of rookies in the league but who have higher school class status as sophomores and juniors.

As for freshmen, continuing the discussion, Kerry Kinek, a Central Catholic graduate in Allentown, Pa., headed for nearby Lehigh, is one of the standouts for second-seeded Team Black.

Sarah Listenbee, an Abington High graduate headed for Holy Family playing with her future Tigers teammates on Royal Blue, is also an impressive summer rookie.

When it comes to overall summer stars, not counting some of the rookies capable of both as mentioned, the long list for consideration would include Da'Kiya Johnson of the eliminated Ash Gray squad who is heading for Chestnut Hill College transferring from Santa Monica College in California.

Philadelphia University co-captains and incoming seniors Taylor Peltzer and Kristen Blye are two of the mainstays on seventh-seed Team Orange.

Four people usually among the scoring leaders on eighth-seed Team Purple are East Stroudsburg sohomore Ryan Fiascki, Princeton grad Addie Micir, a former Ivy player of the year who graduated in 2011, Lehigh senior Becky Guman and Mountain Hawks junior Marisa Repasch.

Kuester, the daughter of NBA Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach John Kuester, who will be on the Lehigh staff this winter and thus won't be eligible to compete in the league next season, had one of the only three 20-plus effort in the six games played Thursday night.

Lafayette sophomore Emily Homan scored 22 points for Cardinal Red (7-4) in its 77-67 upset of Black (9-2), which in the same game got 26 points from Holy Cross sophomore Alex Smith.

Lindsay Alexander, a Chestnut Hill senior, scored 11 points for Ash Gray, which was eliminated with the loss and through a head-to-head eighth place tiebreak with Purple (4-7). Aubrey Howland, a sophomore at Mary Washington, scored eight points while Megan Shaughnessy, another Chestut Hill senior, also scored eight points.

Meanwhile, the finish resulted in four standings ties, including the eighth-place deadlock with Ash Gray and Purple, that were all easily determined through the first tiebreaker -- head-to-head results -- to set the opening playoff matchups for Tuesday's quarterfinals.

A complex three-way tie for eighth that caused a lot of discussion as to finding a way to eliminate two of the teams became moot when 10th place Kelly Green (3-8) lost 65-54 to 11th place Columbia Blue (2-9) in one of the final nightcap games in the three doubleheaders.

For a while longtime comissioner David Kessler contemplated what needed to be done if the triple deadlock occurred before making a decision off conversations with the competition committee that became moot.

Kessler's email, incidentally, for contacting him is deucebk@comcast net.

Despite Purple losing 71-65 to Royal Blue (7-4), it was still able to advance to Tuesday's playoff action off its slim head-to-head 50-46 win over Ash Gray earlier this week.

Purple will meet top-seeded Lime Green at 7 p.m. Tuesday on Court 1 in an attempt to avenge an overall season-high 92-41 wipeout in the league on July 19.

Black is seeded second off its 85-57 win over Hunter Green on July 10 and will play its quarterfinal game Tuesday at 8:15 on Court 1 against seventh-seeded Orange (5-6), which is composed of Division II Philadelphia University, a team Black beat 62-49 on July 19.

Orange's loss to Hunter Green caused a drop to a sixth-place tie with Vegas Gold (5-6), which picked up a 2-0 forfeit off winless Gold (0-11) Thursday night.

Vegas Gold, which is composed of Division II West Chester Univrsity, earned the sixth seed off a 69-53 win over Orange on June 28 and will open Tuesday in the quarterfinals on Court 2 at 7 p.m. against No. 3 Hunter Green, looking to avenge an 81-68 loss on June 21.

Royal Blue, composed of Division II Holy Family, finished tied for fourth with Cardinal Red and got the fourth seed off its 67-56 win on July 12th.

The seeds are a bit moot since the two will open their quarterfinal action against each other at 8:15 p.m. on Court 2 with Cardinal Red looking for revenge.

As for the details on the other four games besides the Vegas Gold forfeit win on Tuesday night to complete the regular season:

Taylor Bryant, who has enrolled at Delaware, led Columbia Blue in its win to ruin Kelly Green's playoff bid by scoring 12 points, while Alyssa Isler, a Gettysburg junior, and Danielle Derr, a Bloomsburg senior, each scored 11 points.

Kelly Green, which is really Division II University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, got 12 points from recent Devils graduate Rebecca Ruggar, while senior Elsebeth Birman and Brianne Traub, targeted for a 2017 graduation in USP's work/study program, each scored nine points.

Orange, the Division II Philadelphia University contingent, in the loss to Hunter Green, got 11 points from senior Kristen Blye, seven points from sophomore Bria Young, six each from sophomore Najah Jacobs and junior Samantha Morris, and five each from junior Courtney Overholt and incoming freshman Alexandra Heck.

Adddie Micir, the former Ivy player of the year and star of three-time defending league champion Princeton, scored 16 points for Purple, while Ryan Fiascki, a sophomore at East Stroudsburg, scored 11 points, incoming freshman Helena Gemmell at the same school scored 10, Devin Shea, a senior at Ithaca College, scored eight points, as did Division III Haverford senior Calla Miller.

Saint Joseph's made itself felt through the performance of its past and present stars in the league. Of the top 39 scoring performances -- 20 or more points -- the Hawks had 10 of those efforts from Kuester, Shields, senior Shelby Smith and senior Ashley Prim, and incoming freshmen Jordan Strode and Ciara Andrews.

Prim on the last place but competitive Gold squad recently produced the top two performances of the season, scoring 30, then 31 points on consecutive nights earlier this month.

Class designations to players in the roundup refer to this fall when the players return to their respective schools for the 2012-13 season.

Under NCAA rules concerning sanctioned summer leagues, only two teammates from the same Division I school can play together, except incoming freshmen can be added to the limit.

However, entire Division II and Division III teams can play together. There are four such squads in the local competition, and all are Division II outfits as mentioned above in the report of Tuesday results.

Admission is free to the league competition. The quarterfinals are next Tuesday night followed by the semifinals on Thursday night and then a best-of-three championship series the following week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and, if necessary Thursday.

The gym is located in the Willow Grove Industrial Commons business park at the end of Turnpike Drive, which begins at Davisville Road, about a mile below the Davisville &Byberry Roads intersection and also not far from the Route 611 exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

There is also a concession stand with reasonably priced items and the offerings include hamburgers, hot dogs, sodas, juices, bottled water, Italian water ice, potato chips and other foods.

If you want to see all the rosters, there has been one small affiliation adjustment since then, in this blog site, go to league preview post in early June you will see a Guru's guide to the league.

Rosters of teams in the playoffs in order of their matchups will be repeated in a playoff preview over the weekend. The Guru will tweet when they are posted at @womhoopsguru.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

(Guru's note: The Tuesday report is broken into two posts so the playoff situation can be addressed separately from the roundup. The standings are in that post. It is just below this one. If you happened to get here by being in melgreenerg,com, simply click on the mel's blog panel on the left and you will get to the full blogspot archive to scroll under the post.)

By Mel Greenberg

HATBORO, Pa. -- One night remains in the regular season following Tuesday's action here in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League with four teams chasing the final two playoff slots after six were locked up in the Kelly Bolish Gymnasium, home of the AAU Renegades, though seed positions are still being contested except at the top three positions.

Defending champion Lime Green (10-0) remained unbeaten and clinched the No. 1 seed with a 75.59 win over Vegas Gold (4-6), which is stuck in a three-way tie for sixth in the 12-team league along with Ash Gray (4-6) and Purple (4-6) just a game ahead of ninth-place Kelly Green (3-7).

Lime Green got a 20-point performance from 2010 Saint Bonaventure graduate Dana Mitchell, the second time she hit the baskets with that number. Once again the recent graduate tandem of former Saint Joseph's star Katie Kuester (15 points) and former Villanova standout Megan Pearson (13 points) put up double-digit numbers for the champs.

Vegas Gold, which is really the Division II West Chester group, got 15 points from incoming senior Megan Kerrigan and the same total from sophomore Kendall Benovy, while junior Brittany Powell scored 11 points.

The Golden Rams compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's Eastern Division in the wnter.

Individual performances across all teams in the three double-headers were highlighted by Saint Joseph's senior Ashley Prim scoring 31 points, one more than the league high for the season she set Tuesday night, though her Gold team (0-10) had a rally fall short to second place Black (9-1), which held on for an 80-77 victory and clinched the second seed behind Lime Green.

Gold also got another high scoring performance from Saint Joseph's freshman Jordan Strode, who had 29 and was 5-for-5 from the foul line.

Seven players in the six games scored 20 or more points, including Saint Joseph's junior Erin Shields, who exploded for 27 for third place Hunter Green (8-2), which will be the third seed in the playoffs and slid past Royal Blue 79-72 in one of the tighter contests.

The game involved two of the top six teams in the standings, making Royal Blue (6-4) the only one in the upper group to suffer as loss.

Royal Blue is really Division II Holy Family, which is currently tied with Cardinal Red (6-4) for fourth place and holds the tiebreaker if they finish that way off a head-to-head win.

However, mathematically, fifth-place Orange (5-5), which is really Division II Philadelphia University, can finish in a three-way tie for fourth if the Rams upset Hunter Green Thursday night and Royal Blue loses to Purple and Cardinal Red loses to 11th-place Columbia Blue (1-9).

In a three-way tie for fourth, which means Orange would be upsetting Hunter Green Thursday night, Orange would get the fourth seed because of that win as explained in all the tiebreaking scenarios below.

It could be the way the Hawks are playing in the league, despite losses suffered from graduation, Saint Joseph's could make noise this winter competing in the Atlantic 10 conference.

Holy Family senior Maggie Serratelli had 21 points for Royal Blue, while Tigers senior Ana Cruz matched several previous others hitting five three-pointers on the way to 19 points. Sarah Listenbee, a freshman this fall with the Tigers, scored 12 points.

Royal Blue, off a head-to-head win, would get the fourth seed in a two-way tie with Cardinal Red (6-4) off the head-to-head win.

Cardinal Red stayed in the top half of the pack with an easy 82-54 win over Columbia Blue (1-9), which has been eliminated.

Ashley Morris, the former Central High star who also was a standout at Temple before her 2008 graduation, scored 21 points in the Cardinal Red win. Lakia Stewart, who graduated Kent State in 2007, scored 16 points, while Lafayette sophomore Emily Homan scored 12 points, 2011 Georgia Tech graduate Deja Foster scored 10 points, ahead of eight from Assumption College junior Jamie Insel, and seven from Lafayette junior Kelly Loughney.

Orange (5-5) grabbed sole possession of sixth place with a 76-43 win over Kelly Green (3-7), composed of Division II University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) and a rival of the Orange squad in the winter along with the Royal Blue Holy Famly bunch in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC).

In the only other game of the night, in one of the closely-fought contests Purple (4-6) got to the three-way tie for seventh with a 50-46 win over Ash Gray (4-6), also part of that deadlock, as Lehigh junior Marisa Repasch scored 10 points, former Princeton star Addie Micir, a 2011 graduate of the three-time defending Ivy champions, scored nine points, Ryan Fiascki, an East Stroudsburg sophomore, scored 8, as did Lehigh senior Becky Guman, while East Stroudsburg freshman Helena Gemmell scored seven points.

Class designations refer to this fall when the players return to their respective schools for the 2012-13 season.

Under NCAA rules concerning sanctioned summer leagues, only two teammates from the same Division I school can play together, except incoming freshmen can be added to the limit.

However, entire Division II and Division III teams can play together. There are four such squads in the local competition, and all are Division II outfits as mentioned above in the report of Tuesday results.

Admission is free to the league competition, which occurs Tuesday and Thursday nights through the end of the month before the top eight finishers will battle in the playoffs that include one-and-done formats in the quarterfinals and semifinals and a best-of-three duel in the championship series.

The gym is located in the Willow Grove Industrial Commons business park at the end of Turnpike Drive, which begins at Davisville Road, about a mile below the Davisville &Byberry Roads intersection and also not far from the Route 611 exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Doubleheaders on game nights occur on three courts with the openers tipping off at 7 p.m. and the nightcaps, barring overtime, getting under way at 8:15 p.m.

There is also a concession stand with reasonably priced items and the offerings include hamburgers, hot dogs, sodas, juices, bottled water, Italian water ice, potato chips and other foods.

If you want to see all the rosters, there has been one small affiliation adjustment since then, in this blog site, go to last month's post and in early June you will see a Guru's guide to the league.

Guru's Philly Summer League Playoff Chase: Spots Still Up For Grabs

(Guru's note: To make things easier the report from Tuesday is broken into two parts and this post sets the stage for the playoff picture heading into the final night of the regular season on Thursday.

Game coverage is just above this post.)

By Mel Greenberg

HATBORO, Pa. -- Five of the top six teams won games and the top three seeds for next week's quarterfinals were set in Tuesday night's action here in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades.

Defending champion Lime Green (10-0), still unbeaten with one game remaining, will be first, followed by second-place Black (9-1), whose only loss was to Lime Green, and third-place Hunter Green (8-2), whose only loss was to the other two.

Royal Blue (6-4), playing Hunter Green, was the one team to loss but the opponent was from the same upper group. The Division II Holy Famly contingent fell into a fourth-place tie with Cardinal Red (6-4) but owns the tie-breaker off a head-to-head win.

However, Orange (5-5), which moved into sole possession of sixth place could move into a three-way tie for fourth with Royal Blue and Cardinal Red if they lose Thursday and Orange upsets Hunter Green.

Here's everything one needs to know about the playoff scenarios that loom with the final night of regular season action this week and within the post there's also a breakout of each team's situation.

4th Place: Royal Blue and Cardinal red tiebreak goes to Royal Blue for fourth seed on head-to-head win and Cardinal is fifth seed right now.

6th Place Orange -- record. No tiebreak and has clinched an unknown playoff berth through all potential tiebreaking scenarios in the final standings.

7th Place: Breaking tie among Vegas Gold, Purple, and Ash Gray. They are all 1-1 within group so first tiebreak goes to Vegas Gold to seventh seed for win over Orange and then eighth to Purple for win over Ash Gray, head to head and then Ash Gray and ninth and would be eliminated, but that's just now.

Heading into Thursday night there are 23 potential tie-breaking scenarios with one needing a resolution if the longshot occurs (read on) and one needing Commissioner Kessler to rule should that occur.

Otherwise determinations have been made for one potential first-place deadlock, one potential second-place knot; two--potential fourth-place situations; two gridlocks possible at fifth; seven, count 'em, seven tie-ups at sixth place; four, one of which needs a resolution if it occurs, at seventh place, and if it comes to a battle for the last spot, six potential tie-break possibilities for eighth place with one scenario needing the commissioner to rule on the aforementioned recommendation, which is mentioned in this section.

Meanwhile, Lime Green has clinched top seed. Could be tied by record with Black but has head to head tiebreaker.

Black has clinched second seed. Could tie Lime Green for first but loses head-to-head tiebreak for seed or could be tied by Hunter Green for second but has head to head tiebreaker for seed.

Hunter Green has clinched third seed but could tie Black for second, losing out, however, for seed on tiebreaker.

Fourth And Fifth Place Tie Scenarios At Finish

Royal Blue and Cardinal Red have clinched playoffs and are tied for fourth. Royal Blue has head-to-head tiebreaker for fourth seed if both win Thursday.

If one wins and one loses Thursday, winner gets fourth seed outright.

Orange is sixth right now but follow along class.

If Orange wins and both Royal Blue and Cardinal Red win, Orange at 6-5 would get sixth seed outright behind the other two.

If Orange wins and both Royal Blue and Cardinal Red lose, there would be a three-way tie for fourth at 6-5. In that scenario, common records within the group would be 1-1. But Orange beating Hunter Green Thursday night would be best win in group and thus thru a tiebreak would get the fourth seed and then Royal Blue would be fifth off head-to-head with Cardinal Red, which would be sixth.

If Orange wins and just Royal Blue loses, creating a fifth-place tie then Orange is fifth and Royal Blue sixth off head to head win.

But if Orange wins and Cardinal Red loses, then Cardinal Red is fifth and Orange sixth off head-to-head win.

In Group Vegas Gold and Purple move up with 2-1 record within group and Vegas Gold is Sixth and Purple seventh off head-to-head between them. Orange and Ash Gray left at 1-2 but Orange is eighth off head-to-head and Ash Gray eliminated.

-- Solution needed though longshot for this configuration: If Ash Gray, Purple and Vegas Gold win, creating a three-way tie for seventh with Kelly Green eliminated, though remember Ash Gray is playing Lime Green, they are all 1-1 within the group and the best win for each of them is Orange maintaining the deadlock. Based on schedule not likely to happen but if you hear a shriek in the gym put your thinking caps on.

-- Ash Gray and Purple win, Vegas Gold loses and what Kelly Green does is moot, creating a two-way tie for seventh with Purple seventh seed and Ash Gray eighth on a head-to-head.

-- Ash Gray and Vegas Gold win, Purple loses and what Kelly Green does is moot, creating a two-way tie for seventh with Ash Gray seventh seed and Vegas Gold eighth off head to head.

Eighth Place Tie Scenarios At Finish

OK, assume that Orange wins, getting sixth outright, and then either Ash Gray, or Vegas Gold, or Purple wins while the other two in this group loses to create a seventh-place outright finish, let's go to the board for the final playoff spot.

They're all 1-1. Best win for Ash Gray would be Vegas Gold, while best win for Kelly Green would be 2-0 forfeit over Cardinal Red, the overall best in the group through the technicality, while Best win for Purple would be win over Orange. The Guru recommends to Commissioner Kessler that in this setting should it come to pass that Purple beating Orange on the floor trumps a win handed to Kelly Green.

In group Vegas Gold at 2-0 is tops and gets eighth. Kelly Green is 1-1 and Purple is 0-2.

--- Ash Gray and Vegas Gold lose, Kelly Green lose to elimination and Ash Gray moves into the playoffs off two-way tie at eighth off win over Vegas Gold.

-- Ash Gray and Purple lose, Kelly Green lose to elimination and Purple moves into the playoffs off two-way-tie at eighth off win over Ash Gray.

-- Vegas Gold and Purple lose, Kelly Green lose to elimination and Vegas Gold moves into the field off two-way tie at eighth and win over Purple.

Team By Team Playoff Qualifying Breakdown Of Tiebreakers

Lime Green: In a two-way tie for first with Black gets top seed.

Black: In a two-way tie for second with Hunter Green gets second seed.

Hunter Green:Royal Blue: Fourth in a two-way 4th place tie with Cardinal Red; Fifth in a three-way 4th place tie with Cardinal Red and Orange.

Cardinal Red: Fifth in a two-way 4th place tie with Royal Blue; Sixth in a three-way 4th place tie with Royal Blue and Orange; fifth in a two-way tie for 5th place with Orange.

Orange: Fourth in a three-way 4th place tie with Royal Blue and Cardinal Red; fifth in a two-way tie for 5th place with Royal Blue; sixth in a two-way tie for 5th place with Cardinal Red; Sixth by stand-alone record; eighth in a four-way tie for 6th place with Ash Gray, Vegas Gold and Purpple; sixth in a three-way tie for 6th place ith Ash Gray and Vegas Gold; seventh in a three-way tie for 6th place with Ash Gray and Purple; eighth in a three-way tie for 6th place with Purple and Vegas Gold; seventh in a two-way tie for 6th place with Vegas Gold; seventh in a two-way tie for 6th place with Purple; sixth in a two-way tie for 6th place with Ash Gray.

Ash Gray: Four-way tie for 6th place with Orange, Vegas Gold and Purple, eliminated; Seventh in a 3-way tie for 6th place with Orange and Purple; Seventh in a two-way tie for 6th place with Orange; seventh in a four-way tie for 7th place with Vegas Gold, Kelly Green, and Purple; unresolved in a three-way tie for 7th place with Vegas Gold and Purple; eighth place in a three-way tie for 8th place with Vegas Gold and Kelly Green; Eliminated in a three-way tie for 8th place with Purple and Kelly Green; eighth in a two-way tie for 8th place with Vegas Gold; Eliminated in a two-way tie with Purple for eighth place.

Vegas Gold: Sixth off four-way tie for 6th place with Orange, Ash Grey, and Purple; Seventh off three-way tie for 6th place with Orange and Ash Grey; Sixth off three-way tie for 6th place with Ash Gray and Purple; Sixth in two-way tie for 6th place with Orange; Eliminated in four-way tie for 7th place with Ash Gray, Purple and Kelly Green; Need resolution in three-way tie for 7th place with Ash Gray and Purple; Eighth in two-way tie for 7th place with Ash Gray; Eiminated in three-way tie for 8th place Ash Gray and Kelly Green; Eighth in three-way tie for 8th place with Purple and Kelly Green; Eliminated in two-way tie for 8th place with Ash Gray; Eighth in two-way tie for 8th place with Purple.

Kelly Green: Eliminated in all tie-breaking scenarios unless in one tie-breaking scenario for eighth, if it occurs, the commissioner rules that a forefeit win over Cardinal Red, technically higher, is worth more than one of the other teams deadlock having an on-court win over Orange.

Columbia Blue: Eliminated through record but could end Kelly Green's slim playoff hope with a win Thursday night.

Gold: Eliminated through record but could mess with Vegas Gold's post-season possibilities with a win.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Guru's Musings: WNBA Connecticut Sun Rises In Standings But Not On Twitter

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA -- So it's a Monday night and the well is temporarily dry.

There's no WNBA week-ahead to preview since there's no WNBA action until Aug. 16 when the league resumes after the Olympics.

There's no stats to update from the Philly Summer League for another 24 hours when the next-to-last night of the regular season occurs and, besides, going over potential tiebreakers for playoff qualifiers and seeds is not really worth it until the next set of games conclude.

So what's a Guru to do?

Well, trolling around he suddenly got an idea off of twitter stats and one thing led to another and so why not see what and who's popular in the WNBA and USABasketball anhd who's less so and right from the jump did he get a shock.

Running a list of followers at each of the 12 team sites and seeing how they ranked produced a stunner.

When it comes to correlating the standings versus twitter followers -- and also perceived attendance since unlike the old days figures couldn't be found -- guess which team has the worst number of followers?

No, it's not the Washington Mystics, though except for Michelle Snow, finding individual Washington players on a site that has profile links and numbers requires a full-scale search party -- perhaps Crystal Langhorne has a handle but is not on the report.

Tulsa Shock? Guess again.

Would you believe that as of the readout late Monday -- numbers change on the fly in twitterworld -- a team that shares the best record in the WNBA standings at the break is almost out of radar range.

No, it's not the defending WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx, which is among the leaders.

How about the Connecticut Sun, which has a dominating 15-4 record and a comfortable four-game lead over the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference?

Several of the best Sun stars -- there's a phrase -- are among the individual leaders but it's like this: If the franchise twitter follower rankings were used instead of the competitive action on the floor and a lottery for the draft didn't exist, then Baylor star Brittney Griner or Delaware star Elena Delle Donne, depending on the Sun desires, could start residence-hunting along the middle Connecticut coastline.

Just 3,431 followers were on the Sun profile late Monday, trailing the No. 11 Washington Mystics profile, which had 4,569 followers.

At the high end, a slightly incredible and runaway 17,763 followers are connected to the Los Angeles Sparks, which might be driven by the fact that Sparks All-Star and USA Olympian Candace Parker, the former Tennessee sensation, is the runaway individual leader among a slew of present and some past players with 385,243 followers, which is more than the approximate 299,000 that follow the WNBA league handle twitter posts.

Second is second-year pro Minnesota's Maya Moore, an Olympian and former University of Connecticut with 165,782 followers.

Former Sparks great and Olympics all-timer Lisa Leslie, now retired, is third at 101,605 f0llowers, just above Olympian Diana Taurasi's 74,456 followers of the Phoenix Mercury and former UConn all-timer.

The Seattle Storm's Sue Bird, another former UConn great on the Olympic squad, is eighth overall and seventh active with 32,429, just behind Olympic teammate Seimone Augustus of the Minnesota Lynx, who has 32,686 followers.

A third Lynx on the Olympic squad -- Lindsay Whelan -- is 20th overall and 17th active with 13,122 followers.

For one of several comparisons sake, while the Sun statistic is at 3,431, the University of Connecticut women's twitter profile Monday night listed 19,240 followers.

Furthermore, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, also the USA Olympic coach, has 9,822 followers, while his daughter Alysa, who writes a popular blog, has 1,522, which is surprisingly below the more than 2,000 followers of DishNSwish or the current 1,800 plus following the Guru.

Ten individuals with UConn or Connecticut Sun ties and Auriemma are in the top 24 active, including rookie Tiffany Hayes at 24 active with the Atlanta Dream and 7,260 followers.

Meanwhile, someone needs to do some marketing for past Sun All-Star and former UConn standout Asjha Jones, who has made her first USA Olympic team but is at 56th active and 68th overall with 2,103 followers.

That's way below the next Olympic teammate, the Chicago Sky's Sylvia Fowles, who is 21st active and at 25th overall with 8,766 followers.

The New York Liberty, which is in fifth place in the East, is fifth with 8,396 followers, but after former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter, coming in ninth active and eighth overall, with 32,057 followers, the next Liberty player on the charts is former Rutgers star Essence Carson at 32nd active and 38th overall with 5,424 followers.

New York teammate Kia Vaughn, a former Rutgers star and next Liberty player on the charts, is listed activre at 55th active and overall at 67th with 2,119 followers, just ahead of Asjha Jones. Former Stanford star Nicole Powell is the next Liberty listed at 1,308 followers, which ranks her 88th overall.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for the Liberty to land Diggins, eh? She has 256,159 followers, which would bolt her to No. 2 in the WNBA. Delle Donne as of Monday night has 976 and Griner has 862.

Yikes. The Guru has almost more than Delle Donne and Griner combined. That won't last.

Meanwhile WNBA president Laurel Ritchie has 2,419 followers.

Here's the team list first before moving on to the individual stats. The ranking will also include the team's place in the competitive standings next to the ranking number. There were two inherent ties -- Atlanta and Chicago for third in the East while San Antonio and Los Angeles were virtually knotted for second in the West at the break.

Here is the some of the ranking of individuals but this will be an active list so those not in the league will have an X and a number to help establish the overall number, in parenthesis, of the active players.

USA team members also noted of which 11 of 12 are in the top 21 active list.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Guru's Musings: Reflecting With Debbie Black -- A New Philly Hall of Famer

(Guru's note: There will be much more when we get closer to Debbie Black's Philly Hall induction but here's a Guru story for now off a phone call and other things to hold you over. And down in this post are some notes from last weekend in Washington talking about some of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductees and other items.

Directly below this overall post is the definitive Doug (DD) as in Feinberg writethru on AP of the USA women's game. If you are in melgreenberg.com just click mel's blog on left to get to full blogspot archive.)

By Mel Greenberg

It was a big week for Ohio State and Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia in terms of hall of famers in women's basketball, which also showed there's not many degrees of separation from the individuals and one Geno Auriemma -- the Hall of Fame UConn coach who is now a step higher, if that is possible, guiding the USABasketball Women's Squad in the forthcoming Olympics in London.

First, Buckeyes coach Jim Foster, who also guided the Hawks and Vanderbilt, previously, was named on Monday to the 2o13 six-member class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.

Foster gave Auriemma his first women's coaching job as an assistant when Foster was hired at Saint Joseph's.

Then Tamika Williams Raymond was named to the Ohio basketball hall of fame. She played for Auriemma at UConn and was an assistant to Foster with the Buckeyes.

Those honors were quickly followed Thursday with the announcement that former Hawks star Debbie Black, the Archbishop Wood graduate who played for Foster at St. Joe's and is now an assistant to him at Ohio State, was named to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

You should know that Auriemma was on the ballot but did not get picked, though maybe the Philly officials will use their allowed powers and add him if his WNBA All-Star team disguised as Olympians win the gold when the competition concludes in London early next month.

Black also beat out former Phillies and Cincinnati great Pete Rose.

"I know people might have their reasons but that's too bad in a way," Black said in a discussion this week. "I always wanted to meet him. Growing up I styled myself after him -- you know Charlie Hustle and all that."

She was Debbie Hustle and Bustle for people who always watched the fireplug Black scamper all over the place for the Hawks and later as an All-Star for the Colorado Xplosion in the former American Basketball League and Miami Sol and Connecticut Sun in the WNBA.

"I couldn't get to the press conference for the announcement," Black said. "But my dad was there and, you know, I'm in a couple of Halls of Fame already but this one really looks like a big deal and special.

"I'm looking forward to it (Sept. 8 at the Sheraton Society Hill). I heard they really make the event special."

Black is also in the the Big Five, Saint Joseph's Women's Basketball and Saint Joseph's (all inclusive) and Bucks County chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Halls of Fame.

Following her Saint Joseph's career, which was highlighted by the Atlantic 10 wars of the time when she would go womano-to-womano against (now Duquesne coach) Suzie McConnell-Serio when Penn State was in the conference, Black spent eight years in Australia playing for the Tasmanian Islanders.

Of course when she returned to stateside and persons across the nation got to see her play, the comment was she may have been a Tasmanian Islander but on the court she's the Tasmanian Devil.

Opponents used to compare her to a gnat with her defensive getting up in people's faces, some much taller than her.

Being away in Australia and pre-dating Dawn Staley and Jen Rizzotti, Black did not go against those two point guard legends who were household names in the sport, until she returned, playing in the ABL.

Besides playing for Foster, she played for coaching notables Ron Rothstein in Miami with the former Sol and Mike Thibault in Connecticut, where Black is a strong candidate to land perhaps on the second five of the Sun teams of the decade soon to be announced to celebrate the 10th year of the franchise after moving from Orlando.

Black recently told the Connecticut Sun broadcast she feels like she owes Foster one more year before looking to guide her own program.

She also played in the then-named Philadelphia Dept. of Recreation NCAA Women's Basketball Summer League.

"I hear it is all indoors now," said Black of Warminister, near where the two-nights-a-week Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA Women's Basketball Summer League competes in Hatboro in lower Bucks County.

"It's so different now. When I played it was all outdoors. Great atmosphere. Who cared how hot it was. Just suck it up, grab your bottles off water and play," Black laughed.

Black's sister Barbara also played for the Hawks.

The Guru has a million tales of the Debbie Black experience, but these are a few to entertain for now.

Back when La Salle's gym was really tiny, the Hawks were part of the Explorers' holiday tournament field when Black was a freshman.

In the opener they played then-rising power Western Kentucky, coached by Paul Sanderford and featuring Clemette Haskins, notable in her own right and the daughter of men's coach Clem Haskins.

The Hilltoppers were nationally ranked but Black was in Haskins face the whole night, though Saint Joseph's trailed by 11 points late in the game.

Foster's strategy was to keep fouling and it was successful because WK kept missing from the line and then the Hawks would score, rallying to force overtime.

Early in the extra period, Haskins had enough of Black and nailed her with a haymaker getting Haskins tossed out of the game and the Hawks prevailed.

Sanderford, initially thought Black was getting away with stuff and not being called for fouls, but a year or so later he decided she was, indeed, a great defensive star. Anyhow, the next night the Hawks came back from a deep deficit at halftime to beat now-Rutgers' coach C. Vivian Stringer's first Iowa team.

(That's a story for another day from the Hawkeyes' version of what occurred).

The next week Saint Joseph's earned its first AP ranking under Foster.

That brings us to 1996 when the ABL held a major combine in Atlanta to slice a ton of candidates from early in the week to about 100 or so to become part of the league's first draft.

The Guru to save a few pennies and see things more focused didn't head South until the back end of the week when nitty gritty time was approaching.

As he got to the gym, a colleague no longer on the planet but who had become the women's basketball beat writer for the Los Angeles Times greeted the Guru upon his arrival with the following:

"I've been here all week and there's this kid from Australia who's made every cut and she's sensational," the Guru was told.

"What's her name?" the Guru asked.

"Debbie Black."

"Debbie Black," the Guru exclaimed. "I covered Debbie Black before you were born (he was actually much older). Jim Foster owes his career to Debbie Black."

But Black had no major ambitions other than to get home and catch on with a team in some way," Black said then and repeated those past thoughts this week. "I don't mind sitting on the bench."

Well, Black was drafted but played behind a former Colorado star in Denver when the season started. But within a matter of games, Black was in the lineup and in one famous game she had a triple double in a game that had several overtimes, even though she hurt her back.

When the ABL folded Black landed in the WNBA and by now had actually gained some long overdue national notoriety.

One of the great individual rivalries was against Teresa Weatherspoon, now coaching her alma mater Louisiana Tech but who played for the New York Liberty.

Black would get booed unmercifully by the Garden crowd in appreciation, actually, when her name would be announced in the lineup.

One season the Guru's sports editor of the time at The Inquirer wanted to attend a game to take his daughter, who attended St. Joe camps, to the Garden for her birthday.

The Guru hooked him up with someone to buy seats and they ended up on row one right where the teams come out of the court.

Before the game the Guru took the two into the Miami locker room -- New York, with Rebecca Lobo, had already closed -- and they were introduced to Black and all that.

Ever the ambassador of the game, Black started a conversation with the birthday girl.

The Guru, incidentally, had thought New York was going to win so he originally was focused on the Liberty to make his brownie points with the boss.

Anyhow, near the end of the half Black and Weatherspoon got into it all the way past the buzzer and spilling into the laps of the birthday guests.

"Does this always happen like this up here," the boss asked the Guru, who responded: "Only when you are here."

Well, as it turned out, the game was close the rest of the way, Miami won at the end and as they came off the court, Black yelled to the birthday girl," Hey, come back. We'll talk more about being a point guard."

Black, who was a teammate at Wood for several seasons with former La Salle star and now Boston U. coach Kelly Greenberg, had her own traveling fan club because of her large and vocal family.

If the other side was doing well, one could say, "Wow. the team just took the Black delegation in the stands right out of the game."

In 1997 at the Women's Final Four in Cincinnati, UConn, after its previous two seasons of success with a title and a semifinals appearance, did not make the national semifinals, freeing up Auriemma to his formative years on the social circuit at all the parties.

The ABL was in force in meet-and-greet mode then in competition for talent with the soon-to-be-launched WNBA.

And so it was that Black got into a discussion at one event with Auriemma, as far back as those two went from their Philly past in the Catholic League.

Geno was Geno, and when talking about Black's alma mater and his days playing for Kenrick, in the Catholic League, he referred to traveling to play Wood: "I used to tell my mother, Hey mom. I'll be back in a couple of days. We're taking the wagon train to go play Wood."

Black was starting to get incensed a little about all this and then the subject of Foster came up. Geno again being Geno, and it wasn't always Pat Summitt at the receiving end of his jibes, said something that really got Black going.

Fearing the worst, Black's delegation hustled her away.

The next day, Black cornered the Guru, saying, "Hey, I didn't know they were good friends. I've been in Australia for eight years. You have to help me catch up and let me know whos is who."

Anyhow, that's for starters.

In Praise of Jim Foster

Meanwhile, in doing the story on Foster's induction announcement for The Inquirer earlier this week, several quotes hit the cutting room floor because of space limitations.

No such problem on this blog, eh?

Anyhow, while in Washington for the USA training sessions and exhibition with Brazil, the Guru talked about Foster with Carol Callan, head of the USA's women's programs but also the current president of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame board of directors.

Callan and Foster go way back because of his USA involvement and the Guru, surmising because of their long relationship, that she made the call to inform him of his honor. So he asked her to talk about Foster a bit and this is what she had to say:

"Jim has impacted the game in more ways than most. He, himself, is such a humble guy that he doesn't like attention brought to himself, but he understands the greater recognition, not just for him, but for the universities he's been, the players that he's coached, the coaches that he's coached with and he's very honored," Callan began.

"What's interesting about Jim is his work with USABasketball. He's coached every competition, even as a head coach except at this most senior level and then he was an assistant there and he's been a coach at every level, therefore, as a head coach or assistant.

"He's been on committees several times that's selected players and coaches. He's so well respected in his way of approaching at things and looking at things. He understands that it's not the traditional look at something. He comes at it from all angles and he provokes thought. And in our setting that is the biggest key."

USA UConn-Polooza

Auriemma has been asked non-stop about the 12-member squad containing six of his former Huskies players.

Last week, here was the way he gave his take on it in Washington to the Guru: "Rebecca (Lobo) made the Olympic team. Kara (Wolters) was on the Olympic team.

"Svetlana (Abrosimova) was on the Russian team. So now to have this group of players here it makes you feel so proud of them, personally, and they had a vehicle at UConn that allowed them to get to this point.

"That means a lot to us up at school. That's where they grew up. And when they first started, this certainly wasn't the goal. Come to my school and I'll make you an Olympian. That's too far fetched. But for all them at this time, you would have been hard pressed to predict that at any time.

"I said this before when I was named the national team coach: 'Don't pick one of my players because they played for me. And don't not pick them because they played for me. They all deserve this on their own merits. What they've done since they left UConn is what got them on this team, not their career at Connecicut."

Sue Wicks and Jen Rizzotti Honored

Another of the six inductees is former Rutgers star Sue Wicks, who also was a WNBA All-Star for the New York Liberty and selected as one of the first five players last season on the team's Ring of Honor.

UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey, who is helping conduct practices for Auriemma and is with the contingent in London along with his other Huskies assistants as scouts viewing USA opponents, is a former Rutgers star who was involved in recruiting Wicks.

She and Auriemma both recollected Wicks' career.

"I saw all her games out in the middle of nowhere," Dailey said of traveling to Wicks' town of Center Moriches on Long Island.

"She ran on the balls of her feet, she had unbelievable footwork. And at the time she was a 6-2 post player with guard skills and at the time you didn't see a lot of that back then. Just a tremendous player."

Former UConn star Jen Rizzotti, now a coach of Hartford, is also an inductee.

Reflecting on seeing her for the first time when recruiting Rizzotti, Dailey recalled,"She was playing AAU. The ball went out of bounds. There was sweat on the floor or water on the floor and instead of waiting for the towel person to come out, she sat down and swished it with her butt and got up and played.

"She wanted to keep playing. She was always one of those kids at her size, she would always get the ball on the rim -- some kids can't do that. Jen could always get the ball in traffic and get the ball on the rim. Just one of the toughest most competitive players we've ever had."

As for Auriemma on Wicks, whom he dealt with as a broadcaster on WNBA games, he compared her to Wicks' Rutgers coach Theresa Grentz, a Women's Basketball Hall of Famer who played at Immaculata.

"I remember her at Rutgers;. Chris talks very highly of Sue and I got a chance to know her a little bit with her career in the WNBA and always thought she was a precursor of what was going to happen.

"She was the kind of player that didn't exist at that time. When I watched her play, I thought, `Man, She's Theresa Grentz to the next level. Theresa was a great player and now Theresa gets to coach Sue who was the modern version of Theresa.' And now you get Maya Moore or Candace Parker who are the next level of Sue Wicks.

"Great person. Enjoyed getting to know her."

Sister Act

Another inductee is Peggie Gillom, whose sister Jen is already an inductee and is currently an assistant coach with the USA squad as well as the WNBA Washington Mystics.

Both played at Mississippi for Hall of Famer Van Chancellor, the 2004 Olympic coach.

Jen spoke of her sister's honor and what it meant to the Gillom family: "I'm so proud of what we have accomplishment in our coaching careers and playing careers.

"It's not often you get two siblings that have coached the Olympic team. I've always been Peggie's little sister and followed in her footsteps and told her sometimes we joke, "Hey Peggie, I got a gold medal as a player and you don't.

"But you know I'm so happy for both of us. My mom is extremely ecstatic she's had two daughters accomplish such a great honor. The family back home look at it -- it's just amazing, two women come from a small town we come from that has accomplished so much.

"I just told her, I hope I can come back with a gold medal like she did."

Growing Up in USA

Tamika Catchings, the former Tennessee star who was last season's MVP with the WNBA's Indiana Fever, has gone from a youngster on her first Olympic team to a senior leader on her third and talked about the transition .

Her father, incidentally, is Harvey Catchings who played for the Philadelphia 76ers.

"It is amazing as we've gotten older and wiser, I'm looking at these younger players and these are the ones who are going to carry the torch from here on out.

"The fun part of being part of the USA family is just watching players develop over the years. The way the system is now, you have 21 players you are training and from that 21 you pick 12 but you always have players you can lean back on -- worst case scenario in case someone gets injured -- but I think when you look at the players we have here, I'm excited about the talent we have. And if everybody brings what they have to the table, this can be one of the best teams of all time."

Since Catchings is one of the few who can now say they have played for both Tennessee's Summitt and Connecticut's Auriemma -- the top two of the all-time coaches in the women's game -- shes spoke of the experience.

"The style is a little different. But when you look at the success both of them have had -- Geno's had a lot of success, Pat's had a lot of success, so being able to get the best out of your players is the number one thing both of them have had.

"The styles are a little different but at the end of the day you want a coach that wants the best for you and out of you. And both of them have that.

"The intensity is a little different at practice but that's because you have different players. The focus is there. The determination for what we want to do and what we're trying to accomplish -- we all have that. We all have the passion and love for the game. Every player who's played for USA has always had that."